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A Question About Gravity and Black Holes

-- Robert | June 7, 2023

Question:

I’m not a scientist so I hope you don’t find my explanation to my question too rudimentary.
I was watching a show on Space-time & how gravity curves this space-time making space-time go slightly slower towards the centre of the mass of an object. I also remember hearing somewhere that gravity isn’t a force that is easily explained. My question is, could gravity simply be the curving of space-time simply pushing objects towards the centre of each other’s mass rather than an attraction of two objects towards one another? Which raises another question, is a black hole so massive that not only light cannot escape but space-time itself? Is a black hole so massive that time no longer moves forward? Does my question make sense?

-- Robert

Answer:

Regarding your first question, if space curvature is not due to the gravitational force of an object, then you are left asking what causes space to curve? Experimental results tell us that gravity produces curvature in the space around objects, and objects near each other experience a mutual gravitational force. Regarding your questions about Black Holes, I think that the very nice overall description of Black Hole properties from the University of Chicago can provide the background information you need.

-- Jeff Mangum

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